The recovery of 1,870 health workers from COVID-19 and the position of the Child Rights International (CRI) that the decision to close down schools in the country as a result of COVID-19 must be based on science or medical evidence and not emotions are the trending stories in the Ghanaian press on Friday.
The Times reports that at least 1,870 out of 2,065 health workers infected with the coronavirus in the line of duty have recovered and are back to work, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) has announced.
The Director-General, Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, who made the disclosure at a news conference in Accra yesterday, indicated that six casualties have so far been recorded with 183 others, currently under treatment.
The number of infected health workers formed part of Ghana’s cumulative case count which now stands at 26,125 following the confirmation of 695 new cases.
The new cases, had come from a backlog of tests conducted between June 12 and July 12, this year with the bulk, recorded on June 24 and June 25 respectively.
of recoveries and discharges, however, has increased to 22, 270 though the death toll remains at 139, which means, that, the country now has 3,716 active cases.
The newspaper also says that the Executive Director of Child Rights International, (CRI), Mr. Bright Appiah, has noted that the decision to close down schools in the country as a result of COVID-19 must be based on science or medical evidence and not emotions
In a statement issued yesterday in Accra, he said since it had not been proven yet that the students contracted the disease on school campuses or their homes, the only reason that must determine the closure must be through scientific data.
Mr. Appiah suggested to the Ghana Health Service (GHS) to provide in its daily data updates, reports on the behaviour of COVID-19 among children.
This, according to the statement, would help understand the pattern behaviour of COVID-19 among children so as to inform policy direction and to also know how serious the consequences are for children.
“In most advanced countries research has shown that the transmission of the COVID-19 among age cohort of 20 and below is slow as compared to the vulnerable groups,”
The Times also reported that the Ghana Education Service (GES) has assured parents and guardians of final year Senior High school (SHS) students in the country that it will do everything humanly possible to protect all children against COVID-19.
The Greater Accra Regional Director of the GES, Mrs. Monica Ankrah, gave the assurance on the sideline of a mass disinfection exercise in the Accra Girls’ Senior High School, in the national capital.
the school authorities had also been charged with the task of ensuring that, the students together with the teaching and non-teaching staff members observed strictly the COVID-19 safety protocols.
The exercise, which was a collaboration between the Ministry of Education (MoE), and Zoomlion Ghana Limited (ZGL), was undertaken yesterday, and it lasted for about five hours.
According to the Greater Accra Regional GES Director, the lives of the students are a priority and encouraged parents to have confidence in the GES and school authorities to “take very good care of their children.”
The newspaper also says that the efforts of a team of policemen to effect the arrest of some suspected robbers have resulted in two of them drowning in the Oda river at Kobro village, near Jacobu, in the Amansie Central District of Ashanti Region.
They have been identified as Lance Corporals, Stephen Kyeremeh and Amedius Akwesi Boateng, both of Obuasi District Police Command.
The Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Godwin Ahianyo, Head of the Ashanti Regional Police Public Affairs Unit, confirmed the incident to the Ghanaian Times here, yesterday, saying it took place on Wednesday.
Ahianyo did not give much details, but said a search was underway as part of the investigation into the drowning.
The newspaper, however, gathered that two other policemen, Sergeants, Isaac Nyamekye, and James Ahiman, and their colleagues were on patrol duty on the Obuasi-Dunkwa highway.
GIK/APA